Mathri is the famous Rajasthani namkeen aka savoury snack, I came to know about while staying here in Delhi. In fact it is hugely popular in northern India and served at marriages and pujas. It has some basic similarities with Nimkee, the quintessential bengali namkeen.

Here I prepared a special kind of ‘mathri’ having some additional ingredients like methi (fenugreek leaves) and various spices. Produced in heaps, mathri can be best enjoyed with tea or served with pickle. Don’t mind if it is a bit oily since the taste is simply unbeatable and the extra oil surely can be soaked out with a tissue underneath.

Ingredients for 50 – 60 pieces :

1. Plain flour – 2 cups (small)
2. Semolina – ¼ cup
3. Handful of dry fenugreek leaves
4. Cumin seeds – 1 tbspoon
5. Carom seeds or Ajwain – 1 tbspoon
6. Crushed black pepper – ½ tbspoon
7. Turmeric powder – ¼ teaspoon
8. Red chilli powder – ¼ teaspoon (optional)
9. Asafoetida or Hing – ¼ teaspoon
10. Baking soda – ¼ teaspoon
11. Salt – 1 teaspoon
12. Clarified butter or ghee – 3 tbspoon
13. Vegetable oil for deep frying

Procedure :

Mix all the dry ingredients in a large bowl.

Add ghee and mingle it well with the flour and spices mixture. Adjust the amount of ghee till the flour mixture binds to lumps while pressing with your palm.

Using little water, prepare a semi-soft dough. I needed ½ cup of water using the same cup that I took for measuring the flour.

Rest the dough for 20 – 30 minutes.

Then divide the dough into 3 equal parts.

Roll one dough ball on a wooden surface into a medium thick circle. Grease the wooden surface with ghee before rolling. Using a cookie cutter separates small circles, as many as you can, from the big one. Prick the small circles both sides using a fork so that they can’t be puffed while frying.

Follow the same procedure for rest 2 dough balls.

Put together the left over dough after taking all small circles from the 3 dough balls. Roll it again to get few more small dough circles.

Heat the vegetable oil over medium flame for deep frying.

Fry dough circles in batches on low heat till they turn golden brown from both sides.

Transfer them on paper towels to soak excess oil.

You can serve them hot or store in an air tight container after cooling for later use upto a month.

Note :

1. Fresh fenugreek leaves can also be used instead of dry ones. Wash the fresh leaves, dry them and then chop finely.
2. The oil should not be very hot while frying the ‘mathri’. Mathri will take few minutes to be completely cooked from inside. So don’t do it in hurry.
3. If you don’t have any cutter then make small balls out of the dough. Roll each ball into small circles and deep fry into oil.